December 26, 2004
microthoughts
Had another wee think about Microsoft today.
1. OK, so what’s with the new campaign tagline, “Your potential, our passion”? It’s bloody awful. It’s meaningless. It’s straight out of Dilbert. But hey, if you invert it, it gets more interesting: “Our potential, your passion.” Much more kinky etc.
2. And what’s with all the demographically-correct hipstergeeks on this page? What are they trying to say here? “Hip, geeky folk like Microsoft?” Hey, I was young once. I can remember when having an Apple in the office helped me to get laid. Can’t say the same about IBM.
3. “Microsoft. We are to Dell what Proctor & Gamble is to Wal-Mart.”
Agree? Disagree? If the latter, why?
4. The main subtext of the current Microsoft ad campaign is “unlocking the customer’s potential”. But frankly, it’s a uninteresting and formulaic campaign. London School, circa 1985.
So Microsoft wants to unlock my potential by being uninteresting and formulaic. Good plan.
5. The big limitation with “Brand Microsoft” is it’s mostly just good for work-related stuff. That would be fine, if work didn’t invariably suck so much.
“Microsoft. We don’t suck as much as your job.” Has a certain ring to it.
Microsoft:
“Your money, our passion.”
Large companies, your money. Kinda goes with the territory. Heh.
If it’s any consolation, I want your money JUST AS MUCH as Microsoft ever did– they’re just better at getting it from folks than me
Since I use M$ at work and MacOS at home I’ve always just associated M$ with soul-crushing drudgery.
Duuude. It beats ‘Where do you want to go today’
Finally they seem to have figured out that they are a better technology company than a media company.
But you know what? I saw this MS print ad a while ago (2003) in which a person was pushing a cart. Outlined in white was a sketch of the cart holding a mike (ie. being a podium) with hundreds of people sitting around listening to what the guy pushing the cart had to say, on his stage (that was really just a corridor he was pushing the thing down.)
The slogan was something like, ‘we see it in you.’
I think it was a job ad, and I found it wonderful and inspirational. Unfortunately, while the image remained in my mind, I don’t associate t with MS – just a standalone ad.
Can’t smack a brand into forcefully having an image, I suppose.
Wal-Mart dictates requirements to it’s suppliers. (E.g. artists releasing censored versions of albums specifically to sell at Wal-Mart.)
Microsoft, nominally the supplier, it usually the one dictating terms to retailers and OEMs.
Microsoft is more like a car company than a computer company. Their business model is selling the same product to the same customer year after year.
Oh, each year they paint it a different colour, use bigger fins and more chrome, but under the bonnet it’s the same old tired design getting heavier and slower. This is called “innovation”.
Even their most famous slogan, “Where do you want to go today?” could be straight out of a car advert. (Picture longshot of a RangeRover on a Scottish moor, the sun just rising and catching and reflecting in the windows…)
Meanwhile the Asian markets are driving hardware design and soon will be doing the same for software.
Joke from singer-songwriter